Until the important studies of James Tait,
the conventional view was that urbanization was one of the Norman
introductions, or at best an initiative begun by
King Alfred
and his successors. Certainly it is true that evidence of urban entities in the
earlier period is sparse, but archaeology in particular has helped show
that the process was more ancient and more gradual. In the Early Saxon
period, international trade  that is, largely, the trade in "luxury"
goods  had, if not disappeared, then declined and most people's basic
needs could be met through local or regional production. This economic
environment could not have been conducive to more than very modest
urbanization, and that centering around markets redistributing regional
products and some growth in industries such as
pottery-making whose goods gradually
reached wider markets both inside and outside England.

The situation gradually improved during the eighth and ninth centuries,
as the consolidation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms brought a measure of
peace that encouraged some revival of
long-distance trade,
particularly to the closer markets of the Frankish kingdom, the Low Countries and
Germany. This trend became particularly marked in the eleventh century,
whose evidence of widespread revival of international commerce led
Henri Pirenne
to portray
a comparable resurgence of urbanization, dismissing earlier post-Roman
towns as mere fortresses and administrative bases. Although his theory,
influential for half a century, is now largely discredited, he at least
set historians thinking more about economic characteristics as defining
towns. International commerce in earlier centuries had not so much
disappeared as been redirected away from the embattled Mediterranean to
northern Europe, while regional and local trade were still a factor in
the economic fabric.

By the tenth century in England
new
invaders, the Danes, had made their mark in northern and eastern
England, establishing new settlements alongside
existing ones and breathing new life into some towns
(York and
Lincoln being notable examples).
Although the Viking raiders had initially disrupted long-distance trade,
Danish
settlement gave an impetus to agriculture, commerce and industry
alike. At the same time, or even earlier, kings of many of the
Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms had been fostering urban
development to some degree. One key indicator is the appearance of
settlements with names ending in "-wich", one derivation of which is from
the Scandinavian term vik applied to numerous locations around
the North Sea and meaning originally "bay" or "inlet" but becoming
applied particularly to landing-places where travelling merchants would
disembark from their vessels to conduct trade  these were not necessarily
permanent marketplaces but were likely the locations of locally-based
industries (similar to the situation which gave rise to
Lynn).

In time, some of these trading destinations became more permanent,
perhaps with encouragement from Anglo-Saxon kings, who looked
to obtain through wiks the luxury goods they needed to maintain
their elevated status (through conspicuous display and gift-giving).
In fact, the wik phenomenon predated the Danish arrival and can be traced
back to at least the beginning of the eighth century. It is notable
that of the settlements incorporating wik in their names 
including Lundenwic (the site of the Saxon settlement at London being
remembered later as Aldwych, the old wik), Fordwich (the outport for
Canterbury), Swanawic (Swanage), Eoforwic,
Gippeswyc,
Westwyk,
Nordwic, Sandwich,
Hamwic
(Southampton, the outport for Winchester)  several were the principal leading
estuarine-based settlements and/or sites of royal administration in one
or other of the royal kingdoms; every kingdom had at least one such
trading centre associated with a place that later became one of the
country's leading towns. To what extent these types of settlement, with
market functions, can be considered towns is still debated, although some
have tried to skirt the issue by suggesting a category of
"proto-urban"  that is, settlements either having the potential
to develop into towns, or already a good part of the way along the process
of developing the urban character they would later unquestionably have;
this, of course, incorrectly assumes we are agreed upon a precise
and clear set of qualifications for "town" status. Whether urban or not in
intent, it is nonetheless becoming clear that the wiks were an important
innovation as foci for commerce, rather different from rural settlements or
administrative centres; Hamwic, or Hamtun, with two to three thousand
inhabitants, was important enough to give its name to the larger
administrative unit of Hamp[ton]shire, before Viking raids prompted its
inhabitants to relocate into a fortified area at Southampton. In fact,
the Norse invasions seem to have disrupted the wik trading network
generally.

Of course, we cannot look to coastal- or estuarine-based settlements alone
for examples of settlements with some urban attributes. Others with -wic
terminations are also found inland and may well have been so designated
because one of their aspects was as trading centres, if only for the
surrounding region. Examples are found in the salt wiches of
Cheshire and
Worcestershire.
However, to complicate matters, "-wich" in some instances
may derive from the Latin vicus, which was used broadly
for dwellings, farms, hamlets, or subsidiary settlements.

An alternative origin for town-like settlements lies in the response to
the Danish invasion from the kings of
Wessex.
Alfred initiated a
fortification programme
within Wessex, involving both new forts and the addition of defences
to existing settlements; his son Edward the Elder did the same
in the early tenth century as he gradually
took
the Danelaw away from the Danes  beginning with East Anglia (e.g.
Maldon) and then the Midlands and the north
 while the related rulers of West Mercia were doing likewise there
at places such as
Hereford and Shrewsbury.
These fortified places, perhaps inspired by earlier examples of planned fortified
settlements in Mercia,
the Danelaw, and Wessex itself (Hamwic, unfortified), were called
burhs. From that
term derives our "borough", although
burh originally applied to any fortified place (notably royal residences)
endowed with a royal guarantee of enforcement of law and
the peace there.

It was natural enough that burhs, which were often located on water
transportation routes (for strategic reasons) would attract settlers.
Rivers by themselves were attractors of settlement, particularly in
the Early Middle Ages, when road transportation was less easy and much
of the country still forested; they were trade
routes, provided for domestic and industrial
needs, and were natural defences. This is not to say
land transportation routes
were not important. Oxford provides an example of a town that originated as a
small
settlement that arose outside the gates of a monastery, itself lying beside a road
linking Mercia and Wessex (and crossing the Thames by a ford there); it was
an important enough place by the time of Edward the Elder to warrant him
making
Oxford
a burh.

The protective environment of the burhs was incentive to the location
of markets within or nearby, if they were not already present (as is
probable) in those existing settlements converted into burhs. This added
a purely commercial dimension to the burh, planned or unplanned, which
was distinguished by another name: port (a late example is seen
at Norwich, a composite settlement with two wics, later
burh defences, and still later a
Newport added with a strong commercial
character). We should not think of 'port' in its modern usage of a
coastal settlement with harbour facilities. In the Early Middle Ages
the term could be used for a range of settlements, often but not
necessarily with some access by water, but typically with regular trading
activities. Not all burhs developed into towns, nor were all towns burhs
at some point in their life. Similarly, not all ports were burhs. But,
just as the burh benefited from special royal protection, so ports
were privileged by the
restriction of minting and
major commercial transactions to such places (the latter restriction
apparently proving impossible to enforce). Portmen was a name by which townsmen,
or burgesses, were occasionally known in later centuries, as at Canterbury
and Ipswich. As a generalization only,
it can be suggested that the earlier of the burh foundations outside of
the Danelaw were particularly likely to develop into towns, since they
had more time take advantage of economic circumstances by adding market
aspects; the later burhs there were more likely to remain no more than
forts. The burhs
established within the Danelaw, after reconquest, were
typically within settlements already fostered by the Danes into
commercial centres and so also tended to become important towns later
in the Middle Ages.

If burhs were not guaranteed to develop into towns, it is in part
because other factors were at play. After the unification of England
under the Wessex dynasty, the country entered a period of considerable
population growth and corresponding economic growth, as more land was
put under cultivation, heavier farming and improved techniques produced
a surplus of foodstuffs for trade, and market centres were able to
benefit from this and from expanded international trade in luxury
goods.

Some centres prospered faster, and at the expense of others;
as they grew, they in turn provided a population of consumers for
agricultural produce. Improved records give us a clearer picture of
the urbanization process, which was in full swing, particularly in
eastern England where there was room for expansion (not least due to the
reclamation of marshland), rich farmland and only a handful of large
settlements to compete for the role of regional trade centres. The
Domesday Book
identifies 112 places as boroughs, most of them with mints
and features that do seem truly urban; yet we know this was
not a complete list of English towns at that time.
England's prosperity by mid-eleventh century was surely a
factor in persuading William of Normandy to pursue his claims to dominion
there, which in turn resulted in the introduction of a new aristocracy
with its own interests in fostering the luxury trade and creating
new market centres.